Page 40 of Protecting the Flame

The silence stretched and crackled. What had that been? Years back, she’d seen The Blair Witch Project at a Halloween party. At certain points in the film, a character would shout something fleeting and formless. No matter how many times they rewound the stupid thing, they couldn’t make out the words, not even the tone.

This was like that. Something so formless, it might have been anything or nothing. Emma cast her mind back to three nights before when she’d been alone and heard that…that something that could’ve been anything: a rabbit, a bobcat. Even a person? And she had said nothing, mentioned nothing because she hadn’t wanted the responsibility. God, she was a monster.

“Hello?” Will’s bellow made them jump. Cupping a hand to his mouth, Will shouted, “Is somebody there?”

Nothing came back, not even the wind. “It could’ve been an animal,” Emma finally said.

“Or it might have been a person,” Will replied.

“Could it be someone who’s come to save us?” Mattie asked.

“Not at night and not like that. Hello?” Turning, Will shouted into the darkness and the direction the fuselage pointed. “Is there anybody there?”

They all listened. Emma’s skin was fizzing with apprehension. After what felt like forever, she said, “I don’t think—”

The sound, short and sharp, came again. It had no more personality or form than before, and there was no way of knowing if it had been made by a human. But it was there.

“Will, even if it’s a person, we can’t do anything until daylight and then only if the snow holds off. It’s not safe,” she said and then added, almost hating herself, “Bobcats sound like a person screaming. Coyotes scream. So do wolves.”

“I know. Mountain lions do, too.”

“Well, which one is it?” Mattie demanded.

“Without seeing it or a print? I don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say wolf or mountain lion. Maybe a bobcat. They’ll all go into the mountains if that’s where the game is.”

“What does that mean? Emma said deer probably don’t come this high in winter.”

“We don’t know what that is or was.” She had a feeling she knew where this was going and didn’t like it one bit. “We should go back inside. I’m getting cold. It could’ve been anything. Rabbits scream, too.” So did anything getting its throat ripped out.

“But if it is a mountain lion or something,” Mattie persisted as they trudged back, “what does it mean?”

“Two possibilities,” Will said. “One is its den might be close by. The other is what Emma said. Maybe that lion, if there is one, found dinner.”

She should say nothing. She should make like Spock. An omission wasn’t the same as a lie. Besides, she’d thought of something Will had not mentioned.

Yes, that might be a mountain lion, and it might have found dinner.

But who said a person wasn’t the main course?